KR100676092B1 - Priority and security encoding system for electronic mail messages - Google Patents

Abstract

Priority and safety encoding systems for e-mail messages function to redirect message characterization codes to e-mail messages to enable routers, as well as destination message servers, to more efficiently process e-mail messages based on message characterization codes. . Assigned by the message sender or a message server serving the message sender to verify the characteristics of the email message. The message characterization code can be defined to indicate any one or more message related factors such as message content, identification of the message sender, identification of the message recipient, message priority and safety, or other message processing factors. The message characterization code is used by message routers, network nodes, and destination message servers to prioritize the processing of electronic mail messages and optionally provide an alternative subscriber with predefined routing of certain classes of messages. This message characterization code can also be used to automatically initiate various electronic message safety measures to protect the confidentiality of most sensitive categories of messages without the need for subscriber intervention.

Email message, message characterization code, priority, router, network node

Description

Priority and security encoding system for electronic mail messages}             

1 is a block diagram illustrating the overall structure of an electronic message switching system including a current priority and safe encoding system for email messages.

2 is a flow chart illustrating the operation of a current priority and security encoding system for e-mail messages to generate a message characterization code for e-mail messages.

3 is a flow chart illustrating the operation of a current priority and security encoding system for e-mail messages for using a message characterization code for e-mail messages in the processing of e-mail messages.

4 is a flow chart illustrating the operation of the message abstract feature of the current priority and security encoding system for e-mail messages.

Explanation of symbols on the main parts of the drawings

101-102: current priority and safe encoding system for e-mail messages

131 to 134: terminal device 100: electronic message switching system

110 to 111 server 121 to 122 router

131 to 134: subscriber terminal device 131, 134: personal computer

The present invention relates to an e-mail message system, and more particularly to a message characterization code in an e-mail message that enables a router as well as a destination message server to process an e-mail message more efficiently based on the message characterization code. It is about a system to assign.

The problem with e-mail message systems is that all e-mail messages are processed in a uniform manner, regardless of the message content, the identity of the message sender, the identity of the message recipients, or other message processing factors. This is that messages that are very important in time are processed in the same way as private electronic messages. This example also creates an internet that is prone to overload in the case of "push" based on the distribution of information by commercial companies and other organizations, where subscribers have access to a variety of sources of useless information. Receive from the

The current structure of the Internet and electronic communications transmitted thereon is substantially a "pull" structure, where subscribers actively demand information from various sources. For example, commercial information can be obtained from the information company's passive network presence by the subscriber through the use of a browser engine that can identify suitable servers where the desired information exists. In addition, subscribers can exchange e-mail messages by providing their e-mail (e-mail) address to selected other subscribers. However, the structure of the Internet is expected to shift from a virtually "push" structure where commercial businesses and other organizations actively distribute data to subscribers. Distribution of information may be possible without an active request by the subscriber and subscriber group aiming to receive market research, consumer surveys, and e-mail lists. The information is currently performed in a manner similar to letter mail and can be distributed to subscribers via subscribers' e-mail addresses.

Since message routers are not currently designed to handle the mass mailing of information, there is a possibility that Internet transport and message handling possibilities may be overwhelmed when the push structure is implemented. In addition, subscribers receive a significantly increased number of electronic messages that are currently out of control. Therefore, the Internet is likely to be a large amount of mail congestion, resulting in overloading of subscribers with private electronic messages and delayed delivery of important messages.

Priority and security encoding for e-mail messages, as well as destination message servers, that function to redirect message characterization codes to individual e-mail messages to enable routers to process e-mail messages more efficiently based on message characterization codes. The technical progress is achieved by the system and the above mentioned problems are solved. The message characterization code is assigned by the message sender or message server serving the message sender to verify the characteristics of the email message. The message characterization code can be defined to indicate any one or more message related factors such as message content, identification of the message sender, identification of the message recipient, message priority and safety, or other message processing factors.

Message characterization codes are used by message routers, network nodes, and destination message servers to prioritize the processing of e-mail messages, optionally with alternative routing defined by the subscriber for certain classes of messages. to provide. This message characterization code can also be used to automatically initiate various electronic message safety measures to protect the privacy of sensitive classes of messages without the need for subscriber intervention. The importance of the message and the degree of privacy required for the message are interrelated, so the use of a single message characterization code is effective to address both the importance and the degree of privacy of the message. In this way, the current priority and security encoding system for e-mail messages allows the control of the degree to which the subscriber, as well as the network provider, processes the e-mail messages sent to the subscribers by the message senders. Let's do it.

1 is a block diagram illustrating the overall structure of an electronic message switching system 100 including a current priority and secure encoding system (PSES) for electronic mail messages 101-102. The electronic message switching system 100 includes a plurality of internally connected servers 110 to 111 and routers 121 to 122 to form an electronic network that serves to internally connect the plurality of terminal devices 131 to 134. It consists of. Subscriber terminal devices 131-134 may be individual subscriber's personal computers 131, 134, local area network processors 132, or processors 133 used in commercial enterprises. In the example used herein, server 110 is used to generate and send e-mail messages to selected individual subscribers in their personal computers 131, 134. E-mail messages include, but are not limited to, employee-employee messages, advertisements, news group mailings, social group mailings, family messages, school or community messages, audio and video clips, and the like. A predetermined form of communication is configured. Each of these messages has priority, respectively, in terms of the time needed for its delivery, the importance of the message content to the recipient, the identification of the original part of the message, and the identification of the message recipient.

In current e-mail message systems, each postal message is processed without discrimination and therefore at least important messages are processed in the same manner as the most important messages. Unfortunately, this example makes the electronic message switching system 100 susceptible to overload in the case of "push" based on information distribution by commercial enterprises and other organizations. In order to address this problem, the current priority and safety encoding system for e-mail messages 101 is defined as the plethora of e-mail messages generated for transmission to the recipient via the electronic message switching system 100. Differentiate from The priority and security encoding system 101 for e-mail messages may be located at some of a number of locations within the electronic message switching system 100, and for this purpose, the personal computer 131 and the server of the subscriber ( 111 as well as the function as an access point (elements 101-104) are seen as being located in each of routers 121-122. Routers 121-122 are places where various subscribers enter their messages into electronic message switching system 100 or receive their messages from electronic message switching system 100. At these entry and exit locations, the current priority and safety encoding system 101-102 for an e-mail message functions to assign a priority code to characterize the e-mail message and receive the assigned priority codes. Used to process e-mail messages that have been characterized into e-mail messages characterized in a suitable manner.

Message generation using message characterization code

2 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the current priority and security encoding system 101 for e-mail messages to generate a message characterization code for e-mail messages. In step 201, the message sender generates a message, such as an e-mail message, on a local server 110 that supports text editing, mail message generation applications, and the like. Once the e-mail message is complete, in step 202 the sender assigns a message characterization code to the message as part of the message address generation. In particular, the e-mail message constitutes a plurality of segments (such as message body, destination address, message characterization code). The message body includes text messages and attachments generated by the sender on the local server 110. The destination address contains an e-mail address, such as xxxxxxx@yyyyyy.zzz, used to specify the destination side, which is the usual form. The message sender side types in this address or selects an address from an address file residing on server 110. Finally, the message sender side selects from a menu or enters a message characterization code that is added to the remainder of the e-mail message or recorded in the designated portion of the address header. The message characterization code includes a plurality of indications selected according to a predetermined algorithm that indicates the privacy and safety of the e-mail message. For example, message characterization codes are assigned according to scale in the examples illustrated below.

  code    Message form            Sample message   00  Test  Test, ignore the message   10  Mass miscellaneous mail  You can be the winner of the lottery ...   20  Target miscellaneous mail  Special Offer for Ford Truck Owners   30  Target direct mail  Let's try our bass fishing lure ...   40  Website response  Thank you for visiting our website. Here is a 20% discount coupon ...   50  Answer questions  Here is the product information you requested.   60  General interest  School meetings are at 7 PM tonight.   70  Organization expansion  Scheduled step meeting on Friday 9 AM in the meeting room   80  Business privacy  The product introduction maturity date is June 18.   90  Family privacy  Family outdoor party on 4th of July  100  Human privacy  Your test ending with cholesterol screening is ...

Once the message characterization code has been selected and assigned to the message, the priority and security encoding system 101 for e-mail messages located within the processor / local message router 121 defines the value assigned to that code by the subscriber. The selected message characterization code is read in step 203 to determine whether to match predetermined criteria, such as beyond a predetermined threshold. If no match is determined, processing proceeds to step 205 where the message processing ends. If a match is determined, then at step 204 the processor / local message server automatically provides additional security to the message. For example, this additional safety is that the message body is encrypted to prevent the content of the message from being viewed again. Once encryption is complete, flow proceeds to step 206 where the entire e-mail message is sent through the electronic message switching system 100 using known physical transport facilities of the electronic message switching system 100. This additional safety also includes intercepting disk sectors in the memory of the system where the message is stored, in order to leave an unreadable copy of the message in memory once the message has been sent. Another step in step 203 is that the selected message characterization code lies between two thresholds, where the message is considered to be a routing message and is guaranteed without special processing. In this case, proceeding to step 206, the entire e-mail message is sent through the electronic message switching system 100 using known physical transport facilities of the electronic message switching system 100.

Router handling of electronic messages using message characterization code

The electronic message switching system 100 itself may use the message characterization code to facilitate processing of an electronic mail message sent through the electronic message switching system 100. In particular, the electronic message switching system 100 processes many e-mail messages, and must start a traffic overload mitigation process when faced with traffic overload. Many such processes are currently used in electronic message switching systems, but do not use message content or message characterization data to process e-mail messages in different ways. The currently assigned message characterization code is adapted to process e-mail messages in the order of priority for the message sender and / or e-mail message and the priority defined by the message characterization code assigned by the secure encoding system 101. May be used by the electronic message switching system 100. Therefore, e-mail messages with a high value message characterization code are processed before an e-mail message with a lower value message characterization code. The processing of e-mail messages may be defined with different granularities at the subscriber's serving router, called an e-mail server, as described below.

Received Message Processing Using Message Characterization Codes

3 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of a current priority and security encoding system for e-mail messages to use a message characterization code for an e-mail message in processing e-mail messages. In step 301 the recipient's inbound email server 122 receives an e-mail message sent by the sender 110. In step 302, the e-mail server 122 reads the message characterization code included in the message header. Thereafter, a plurality of message processing steps are continued, and these processing steps are performed by the recipient's e-mail message processing algorithm, and the message characterization code range can be programmed by the recipient. Examples of message characterization code categories and user defined message processing algorithms are as follows.

    Code coverage    Message access characteristics and / or processing   P <95  Spouse reading permission   P <90  Child reading permit   P <80  Secretary read permission   P <70  Peer read permission   P <70  Enabled encryption   P> 80  Automatic transfer   P> 90  Auto call alarm   P> 40  Save and extract for later retrieval   P <80  Intercepted disks after deletion 40> P> 10  Filter by Media Agent   P <10  Delete on receipt

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The examples described herein represent a simple and proper way of handling incoming e-mail messages. In particular, in step 303, mail server 122 characterizes the message that received e-mail meets a predefined criterion, such as having a value below a threshold P <10 selected by a predetermined subscriber. Determine if you have the code. If so, then the message is discarded without being delivered to the recipient, and if the message passes the first filter by exceeding the threshold, then at step 305, the second filter selects the threshold selected by the two predetermined subscribers ( 40> P> 10), which includes processing to determine if the received e-mail has a message characterization code that meets a predefined criterion. If so, then in step 306 the message is sent to an off-line message processing agent for other special filtering as described below. Typically, the message is copied to backup media for excerpting by the recipient and later retrieval. If the message passes through the first two filters, then at step 307, mail server 122 determines that the message characterization code of the received e-mail is higher than the threshold (P> 40) selected by the subscriber for which it was predetermined. If the message characterization code exceeds some predefined additional threshold then the message alerts the subscriber. Therefore, if the message characterization code is P> 80, for example if the subscriber is not at their subscriber terminal device 131, the message is automatically sent to the subscriber. Moreover, if the message characterization code is P> 90, the message is not only automatically sent to the subscriber but also a call alert is generated so that the subscriber knows receipt of a very important message.

The message characterization code may also be used by the subscriber to establish access permissions. As mentioned above, low priority messages can be accessed by a wide range of recipients, while important messages have a greater need for privacy and fewer potential recipients are allowed access. Typically, access permissions are managed by a message retrieval process that requires individual retrieval to provide a subscriber identification code such as a password, thereby preventing unauthorized access to the received message.

Message excerpt

4 is a flow chart illustrating the operation of the message extraction feature of the current priority and security encoding system for e-mail messages. Once the message is stored in the memory of the recipient router 122 at the subscriber terminal device 131, the message extracting device 104 may generate the received message to generate data that accurately characterizes the nature and content of the received message. Is activated to access. The message extracting device 104 retrieves the body of the received message, in step 401, and produces an accurate summary of the content of the received message, in step 402. An accurate summary of the content is obtained by analyzing and processing the entire body of the message and includes data providing the subscriber with a content indication of the received message.

The message extraction function can be accomplished in one of a number of ways, depending on the relevance of the summary required by the subscriber and the processing capacity that must be expanded to produce the summary. For this discussion, the message extractor 104 is a key that operates on a text file to extract key word strings that are frequently used within a text message or text message and that represent the most appropriate content of the text message. Assume a message analysis system 107 that includes a word extraction system. The body of the text message is input to a temporary memory 106 used by the message extraction system 104 to store input files, while the message analysis system 107 performs an information content analysis function. Once the text message is stored in the temporary memory 106, the message analysis system 107, in a well known manner, excludes standard prepositions and common words that contain little information content, and then sequentially each word in the text message. Searches for and performs a word count function, and generates a table indicating the frequency of occurrence of the words included in the text string. As a result of this excerpt function, a table is now made to indicate the most frequently used words or word strings in the text message. Additional data may also be generated by the message analysis system 107 in step 403 to indicate the length of the message, the source of the message, and the frequency of use of the various key words that were extracted. In step 404, the message parsing system 107 can overlay the user preference template by indicating the special processing required for this type of message. This summary content information is then stored, in step 405, in memory 105 in accordance with appropriate addressing information indicating the relevance of this summary to the stored text message.

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Subscriber access to stored messages

When the subscriber accesses the router 122 at step 406 to retrieve the messages stored therein, the router 122 sequences the addresses to be addressed to the subscriber via the stored messages. Router 122 retrieves message digest and message characterization data from message extraction system 104 that were previously generated at step 407 and associated with the retrieved message. Router 122 initially provides the subscriber with the stored text message at step 408. This enables the subscriber to obtain a content indication of the text messages and its duration allows the subscriber to determine if the retrieval of the entire text message is guaranteed. If the subscriber does not want to review the entire message, proceed to step 411 and process. If the subscriber wants to receive the entire retrieved message, this determination is made at step 409 and the message extraction system 104 shows the subscriber the entire retrieved message at step 410. Once the retrieved message is being shown to the subscriber at step 410, the message extraction system 104 at step 411 determines whether the non-retrieved additional message is left in the multi-media message storage system 100. If so, then processing returns to step 407, and if not, processing exits this routine in step 412.

Audit of message characterization codes

One can expect some subscribers to attempt to abuse the use of message characterization codes to obtain a higher level of e-mail message processing than is appropriate for their messages. To prevent such abuse, the current priority and security encoding system for e-mail messages includes an audit function that automatically monitors and corrects the use on message characterization codes if the message characterization codes are used improperly. . For example, in an electronic message switching system, subscribers can be assigned various message characterization code classifications, so that business messages generated by the subscriber are assigned to a particular message characterization code or range of codes, while The generated and sent advertising messages are assigned to another lower message characterization code. This pre-allocation of allowed codes or code levels reduces the likelihood that subscribers will not be assigned to a message characterizing code. The fidelity of code usage by the subscriber determines the relative capacity of the message output for its assigned message characterization code, or at each of its assigned code classifications, in particular its suitability for past patterns of message activity, and message content. It can be monitored by spot checks using an expert system to investigate.

Moreover, the fan-out of messages can recognize examples of message sender-sent messages from the majority of recipients and indicate the mass mailing of miscellaneous e-mails.

Violation of the message characterizing code assignment may cause the subscriber to undergo severe behavior such as the end or even termination of their service access in an electronic message communication system by a server Internet service provider of the message characterizing code assignment. Can be. There may also be legislatively fined here, and the sender of the message may be subject to legal action by a governmental agency or fined by these agencies.

Priority and security encoding systems for e-mail messages direct message characterization codes to individual e-mail messages to enable routers, as well as destination message servers, to process e-mail messages more efficiently based on the message characterization codes. Function The message characterization code is automatically assigned by the message originator or message server serving the message originator to verify the characteristics of the email message. The message characterization code may be defined to indicate any one or more of the messages related to factors such as message content, identification of the message sender, identification of the message recipient, or other message processing factors.

Claims (30)

A system for processing an e-mail message over a communication network to a designated message recipient according to a predetermined priority scheme, Means for reading a message characterization code associated with the e-mail message; Means for storing data indicative of a plurality of e-mail message processing protocols, comprising means for defining a plurality of message characterization code categories, each of the categories comprising at least one message characterization code; Means for defining comprises a user provided threshold value and a range of thresholds; Means for selecting, in response to the message characterization code, one of the plurality of electronic mail message processing protocols most closely corresponding to the message characterization code; And Means for processing said e-mail message in accordance with said selected e-mail message processing protocol. The method of claim 1, Means for routing said electronic message through said communications network at a priority defined by said message characterization code. The method of claim 1, The means for storing data, Means for defining at least one of a message processing algorithm and a message access algorithm that define processing of the e-mail message. The method of claim 3, wherein The means for defining at least one of a message processing algorithm and a related message access algorithm, Means for identifying individuals authorized to retrieve the e-mail message; Means for identifying a method of routing an e-mail message to one of a plurality of destinations; Means for encrypting an e-mail message prior to transmission to one of a plurality of destinations; And And at least one of means for shredding disk sectors in which the e-mail message is stored once the e-mail message is sent to one of a plurality of destinations. The method of claim 1, Means for extracting the e-mail message, A memory for storing the e-mail message; Means for extracting information from the body of the e-mail message in response to the e-mail message, the content of the e-mail message; And Means for storing the extracted data in a manner such that the data extracted and stored can be displayed to a recipient of the e-mail message. A method of processing an e-mail message through a communication network to a designated message recipient according to a predetermined priority method, the method comprising: Reading a message characterization code associated with the e-mail message; Storing data indicative of a plurality of e-mail message processing protocols, the method comprising defining a plurality of message characterization code categories, each of the categories comprising at least one message characterization code; The storing step comprising a user provided threshold and a range of thresholds; In response to the message characterization code, selecting one of the plurality of electronic mail message processing protocols that most closely corresponds to the message characterization code; And Processing the e-mail message according to the selected e-mail message processing protocol. The method of claim 6, Routing the e-mail message through the communication network in the order of priority defined by the message characterization code. The method of claim 6, Storing the data, Defining at least one of a message processing algorithm and a message access algorithm that define processing of the e-mail message. The method of claim 8, The defining of at least one of a message processing algorithm and a message access algorithm comprises: Identifying individuals authorized to retrieve the e-mail message; Identifying a method of routing an e-mail message to one of a plurality of destinations; Encrypting the e-mail message prior to transmission to one of the plurality of destinations; Intercepting the disk sector in which the e-mail message is stored once the e-mail message is sent to one of a plurality of destinations. The method of claim 6, Extracting the e-mail message, Storing the e-mail message in a memory; Responsive to the e-mail message, extracting information from the body of the e-mail message representing content of the e-mail message; And Extracting the e-mail message, comprising storing the extracted data in such a way that data extracted and stored can be displayed to a recipient of the e-mail message. delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete

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